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WHAT IS THE G20

The G20 is a forum of 19 countries plus the European Union, representing both developed and emerging economies whose size or strategic importance gives them a particularly crucial role in the global economy. Its role is to co-ordinate policies at the international level and to make globalisation a smoother, more harmonious and sustainable process.

The countries are: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, the European Union, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.

Following the largest financial, economic and social crisis in decades, the world’s twenty most influential economies decided to meet at the Leaders’ level for the first time in November 2008 in Washington D.C. The purpose of the meeting was to cope with the most current challenges of the escalating economic and financial crisis. Following that first meeting, the G20 was officially designated as the premier forum for economic co-operation at the Pittsburgh Summit in September 2009.

MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS

Since they first met in 2008, the G20 Leaders have taken decisive action to prevent future financial crises, while securing sustainable and balanced global growth and reforming the architecture of global economic governance. The decisions made by the G20 have been key to the stability of the global economy at the height of the crisis and to avoiding an outright collapse of the international financial system. For instance, G20 leaders endorsed in 2009 the largest internationally-coordinated stimulus package in history. They also committed to keeping markets open and launched a major overhaul of the international financial and prudential regulation framework, as well as of the international tax architecture.

By committing every year to an action plan of growth and jobs and monitoring its implementation, the G20 shows continuous engagement towards creating high quality jobs and opportunities for all. Specifically at the Brisbane Summit in November 2014, the G20 committed to lift global growth by 2% by 2018 (“2 in 5”) over a baseline scenario defined in the second half of 2013. In Antalya in November 2015, leaders endorsed ambitious G20 Country Investment Strategies to lift the G20 investment to GDP ratio. They also put forth a G20 youth employment target to reduce the share of young people who are most at risk of being permanently left behind in the labour market by 15% by 2025 in G20 countries, as well as a G20 Skills Strategy to counter inequality and grapple with low productivity growth in many G20 countries. With the active support of the OECD, the G20 has also achieved concrete progress in domains such as tax transparency and the fight against tax evasion, thanks to the peer review of tax legislation carried out in the Global Forum (in relation to exchange of tax information on request), the adoption of a new global standard for the Automatic Exchange of Information to be implemented by 2017-18, and the endorsement of the 15 Actions identified in the G20/OECD BEPS Action Plan to combat tax avoidance.

The G20 has also achieved very concrete progress in the areas of financial regulation, anticorruption and food security – with the design of mechanisms to stem food price volatility (AMIS). Through its efforts to address the global economic challenges, the G20 has proved to be an influential international forum where global economic heavyweights from both the developed and the emerging world are sitting together on an equal footing.

Angel GurríaOECD Secretary-General

Gabriela RamosOECD Chief of Staff and Sherpa to the G20

THE OECD IS AN ACTIVE PARTNER OF THE G20

Since the Pittsburgh Summit, the OECD has been an active partner of the G20 in its efforts to strengthen the global economy, accelerate recovery from the crisis and promote a more harmonious rules-based globalisation process. Upon a call by G20 Leaders, the Organisation supported the G20 during the crisis and continues to provide policy expertise and analysis to address the complex challenges of the post-crisis era and a fragile recovery.

The Organisation’s expertise continues to be increasingly recognised and relied upon for identifying the world’s most pressing policy challenges and finding ways to address them. The OECD works closely with the G20, carrying out tasks mandated by the members and in close co-operation with the Presidencies of the G20, in framing, developing and carrying out their priorities. By working with the different Presidencies, the OECD has broadened its support and become a recognised partner of the Group. This has also been the opportunity for the Organisation to build a closer relationship with non-member economies, allowing it to learn further about their policy expectations and integrate their views in a more systematic way, contributing to reaffirming the OECD’s role as a global standard-setter, and supporting its strive for relevance.

HIGH LEVEL PARTICIPATION

Given its multidisciplinary character, the OECD participates both at the highest level (Sherpa, Finance Deputy, Ministers and Leaders) as well at the technical level (Working Groups) by contributing to virtually all of the Group’s strands of work and most G20 working groups with data, analytical reports, policy recommendations and standards. Our contributions to the Group’s work are frequently carried out in collaboration with other international organisations.

This relationship has shown to be mutually beneficial. The G20 process helps international organisations to co-ordinate their work, gives it leverage, and when necessary, injects the political momentum to break deadlocks.